For the 7th time that year I found myself in the big apple. This was the first time I had been there during the holiday season. It really is cold, uh beautiful there. I went with a friend of mine, Lynette. She had never been to New York before so we went up for the day, and basically walked all over the place. Other than going to the 8pm Radio City Music Hall show, we didn't really have anything specific planned. We walked around Central Park and spent some time on 5th Ave checking out the stores. The decorations were truly extraordinary, far beyond anything I would have thought of. Rockfeller Center was amazing, the tree gorgeous. I'd been to New York alot during 2007, but had never seen so many people in one square block. Rockfeller Center was absolutely packed! I must say here that I don't like crowds, not at all, so that was a bit much, but otherwise it was incredible. The Radio City Music Hall show was great, highly recommend going if you ever have a chance.

We had flown up to New York, but didn't want to be tied to a specific time that we had to leave, so we rented a car and drove back. I really didn't want to drive in New York City, so I intentionally rented a car from LaGuardia. I made sure to get a GPS with it as I don't know the roads there. Well, apparently the GPS didn't know the roads well either, I ended up driving back into the city, after taking a few wrong turns. Eventually we did make it out of the city and made our way home. All in all it was a great day!

I have been a Duran Duran fan since 1981, one of the original Duranies. Yet in 26 years I had never met them. This changed on November 3rd, 2007. A date I will never forget, and honestly still can't believe it happened. Duran Duran were doing a stint on Broadway at the Barrymore Theatre celebrating their fantastic new CD, Red Carpet Massacre. I flew into New York, yes again :), Friday 11/2, and had tickets to the Saturday show.

I went to the VIP pre-show event and found out that I had won a chance to meet the band backstage before the show. After about 10 mins I think I said, "great" or something clever like that. I was extremely nervous, after such a long time, I was wondering if I would ever meet them. Finally, it was time to go and so 13 of us, the other winners, Jen from the fan club and I, all piled into a very small elevator at the hotel. Whenever the elevator stopped most had the intelligence to see that it was full... but not everyone. This one woman insisted on getting on the elevator, causing the door to get off track when it tried to close. We were stuck. Stuck. I am petrified of being trapped in tight spaces. Internally I was freaking out!! After about 15 mins we finally got to the next floor and the doors opened. I have never been so grateful to see stairs in my life!

We finally get to the venue, about 20 mins late, and go downstairs to where the meet and greet will be held. The band showed up within just a min or so. John walked down the line first and was very sweet. Jen and I filled him in about what happened on the elevator. Roger was next, and then Simon... dear Simon. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to talk to him much, but I did say hi and shook his hand. Finally, Nick was there. This was a moment I had always been nervous about, wondering how I would react. I kept it together, though. :) I mentioned that it was wonderful to meet him, especially after 26 years. He smiled and told me I must be very patient. :) I asked him how the show was going and he said that it was going well and that he was hoping I would like it... hmm, there's was more than a gigantic chance I would. We then did the group pictures, I was between Nick and Simon, and then we left.

I had a great seat for the show, 4th row center, and thought it was amazing. The first set was the new CD, they performed the entire thing live. It was cool actually hearing it performed live before even having it in hand. The electro set in the middle was wonderful, you never get a chance to see Roger during a show as he is hidden by his drums, so it was nice to see him. The last set consisted of several of their classic hits. The whole show was fantastic and if I didn't have to fly home the next day I would've loved to see it again.

Ok, ok, I know I am ridiculously behind, so I'm going to try and catch up here. First up is CNN's amazing documentary Planet In Peril. This was a year-long project CNN did to report on the issues that are destroying our planet. Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sunjay Gupta and Jeff Corwin went to 13 countries in 4 continents and reported on some incredible situations. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. I wrote up a report on it and found a few resources, which can be found here: http://www.jennslounge.com/pip/pip.htm. One of the things I admire most about this documentary is that it really just focuses on the facts, it wasn't designed to tell you what is or is not to blame, but simply what is. This is one of Anderson's trademarks, and a main reason I respect his reporting as much as I do.

About Me

Hi there! Well, I finally decided to join the "blogosphere" as it's called. My website (jennslounge.com) will soon have more info, but here's a little about me for now. I work as programmer building web-based applications. I go to the gym nearly every day (trying to shrink to a healthy weight) and I like to spend my weekends either travelling or volunteering. Being close to DC I also enjoy some of the best museums there are. More will unfold in the blog I'm sure, but that's the highlights for now. If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you.